Infrequent new particle formation over the remote boreal forest of Siberia

• Main Authors: Wiedensohler, A., Ma, N., Birmili, W., Heintzenberg, J., Ditas, F., Andreae, M.O., Panov, A.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam [u.a.] : Elsevier Science 2018
• Subjects: ddc:550; ddc:690; Boundary layers; Nucleation; Observatories; Aerosol particles; Anthropogenic sources; Condensational growth; Homogeneous nucleation; Natural sources; New particle formation; Particle number concentration; Planetary boundary layers; Forestry; aerosol; anthropogenic source; boreal forest; boundary layer; forest cover; observatory; size distribution; article; concentration (parameters); height; Russian Federation; taiga; Siberia
• Online Access: https://oa.tib.eu/renate/handle/123456789/6985; https://doi.org/10.34657/6032

Aerosol particle number size distributions (PNSD) were investigated to verify, if extremely low-volatility organic vapors (ELVOC) from natural sources alone could induce new particle formation and growth events over the remote boreal forest region of Siberia, hundreds of kilometers away from significant anthropogenic sources. We re-evaluated observations determined at a height of 300 m of the remote observatory ZOTTO (Zotino Tall Tower Observatory, http://www.zottoproject.org). We found that new particle formation events occurred only on 11 days in a 3-year period, suggesting that homogeneous nucleation with a subsequent condensational growth could not be the major process, maintaining the particle number concentration in the planetary boundary layer of the remote boreal forest area of Siberia. © 2018 Elsevier Ltd